Saturday, December 6, 2014

Custom Asteroid Base Tutorial

It has been a while since I posted a sort of tutorial here in my old blog. I think my old tutorials are still a bit helpful to some, and I think re-posting some or updating some are not necessary as I use the same techniques up to now. I thought of sharing this custom asteroid base though as I have never done it before.

The client of this Starwars Star Destroyer kit requested me to think of and create a simple custom base as the base that came with the kit is just too plain. The base is basically a clear plastic base that looks so ordinary even if painted. So instead of creating the usual space hangar, I created an asteroid looking base to create contrast with the actual ship once displayed.

So quick to do! You just need the proper materials and the right tools to create the base. Below is a step by step process of creating a quick but interesting base for this commissioned work piece.

1. I used a 3mm thick styrene sheet for the asteroid shaped base. A bit difficult to cut to shape but should be much better than using a thin flimsy sheet of styrene. I then glued both the styrene sheet and the transparent base together using Hudson PU Reducer. I also drilled a few holes on the transparent base to give the putty a few holes to cling to.

2. Using Selley's water putty, I sculpted some craters using the butt of my art knife, the butt of my mechanical pencil and my fingers. I let this dry for about 15 minutes before the next step.

3. Using the magnifiscent "Green Stuff", I then enhanced the lips of the craters. I used some wet sculpting tools for this task. I then let this dry for an hour before proceeding to the next step.

4. Applied a layer of Vallejo texture paint! I made sure that the texture paint covered my fingerprints but maintained the small craters at the same time. I will apply a couple more thin layers of texture paint to this after posting this blog post. lol

Apply texture paint using a cheap old brush by dabbing! Do not apply like ordinary paints, dabbing should leave nice textures once dried. Let dry at least an hour before applying another layer of texture paint.

Voila! not yet done of course. Once dried, will apply Acrylic Primer to the base and repaint with Vallejo Model Colors. Hope you find this simple and quick tutorial in creating an asteroid base.

Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :)